Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni hides his face with an empty Sunny Delight carton on his way out of federal court on Friday night. For The Trentonian/JOHN BLAINE

TRENTON — Mayor Tony F. Mack’s chances of walking on his federal corruption charges were just dealt a quarter-ton blow.

In a surprising move, co-defendant Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon as part of a plea agreement for conspiring in a bribery scheme with the mayor.

With his plea, the 64-year-old Ewing resident joins former city recreation department employee Charles Hall III as two of the four co-conspirators to admit guilt in the alleged scheme to accept $119,000 in bribes in exchange for using the mayor’s influence to develop a parking garage on city-owned land, ultimately leaving Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack to fend for themselves in the trial scheduled for Jan. 6.

Strengthening the case against Mayor Mack, Giorgianni admitted to meeting with the mayor at his residence on May 29, 2012, to discuss receiving $100,000 in cash in exchange for the mayor authorizing the sale of the East State Street lot for $100,000. Giorgianni confirmed the mayor agreed to the terms.

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During the course of the scheme, Giorgianni said he informed both Macks they should not accept money from the government’s cooperating witnesses unless the mayor “intended to use his official authority and influence” to carry out the project.

“Absolutely, I said the money had to be returned if we didn’t do the project,” Giorgianni said in court. “I gave my word.”

Giorgianni, who received $54,000 from the cooperating witnesses, also gave the definition of the code word “Uncle Remus,” a term he used with the mayor to tell him he has received a corrupt cash payment.

“Uncle Remus always means cash,” Giorgianni said.

He even clarified text messages sent to Mack spelling the word “Uncle remins.”

“Uncle Remus, I don’t type too good,” Giorgianni said.

Another strike against Mayor Mack was a meeting Giorgianni said occurred in the spring 2012 at JoJo’s Steakhouse, the sandwich shop the 64-year-old owns.

Giorgianni admitted he gave Mayor Mack $8,000 in the back, non-public area of JoJo’s in the presence of another witness.

Giorgianni also said he gave corrupt cash payments to Ralphiel Mack to give to his brother, Tony, and that Ralphiel served as a “buffer.”

In addition to one count of extortion for the parking garage bribery scheme, Giorgianni also pleaded guilty Friday to a receiving a kickback along with Hall for a power-washing contract with the city of Trenton.

Giorgianni admitted to inflating an invoice with Hall for the services by $1,500 for a total amount of $4,911.30, and receiving a kickback of $1,300 from the company.

But the guilty pleas were not over.

In a separate case, Giorgianni along with his longtime girlfriend Mary Manfredo, 64, also pleaded guilty Friday to their involvement in an oxycodone distribution ring based out of JoJo’s Steakhouse. Between May 2011 and June 2012, Giorgianni and his co-conspirators obtained in excess of 12,000 oxycodone pills, according to court documents.

Hall, a cooperating witness in the corruption trial, was the first to admit his guilt in February to the pill-peddling scheme. After one co-defendant died, eight of the 10 co-conspirators have pleaded guilty. City resident Anthony DiMatteo remains the only hold-out in the operation.

Finally, Giorgianni — a convicted sex offender — admitted to possessing four firearms after the FBI searched his home on July 18, 2012.

In 1980, Giorgianni, who became known as the “quarter-ton sex offender,” was convicted of carnal abuse and debauching the morals of a 14-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted in the back room of his steakhouse in 1978.

Giorgianni’s guilty plea comes one day after he was ruled to be competent to stand trial. This fall, he underwent a court-mandated, 30-day psychological evaluation at a federal prison outside of Boston, which determined he suffers from narcissistic personality disorder, but doesn’t affect his competency to stand trial.

For a quick summary of the reduced charges, Giorgianni pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of extortion. Manfredo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.

Both Giorgianni and Manfredo will be sentenced in federal court on March 19.

About the Author

Originally from Webster, N.Y., David has been a reporter in N.J. for the past three years (first in Phillipsburg and now in Trenton).He is a Temple alum who interned at the Philadelphia Daily News. Reach the author at dfoster@trentonian.com
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